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Saturday September 14, 2013 7:24 AM

I’ve been in America for 15 years, having come from Taiwan.

For the first 10 years, I was a homemaker and full-time mom. Since I came to America, most of
the places I went — whether to the grocery, to churches or other places — were all among
Chinese.

I can barely think of any non-Chinese-speaking friends.

In 2009, I was fortunate to be hired by a company through a friend to work on Chinese journal
bibliographies.

Although I’m among Americans while working, I don’t really have to speak a lot of English as
long as I understand and meet the requirement.

I’m well-aware of how poor my English is. I’ve been looking for opportunities to improve it, but
it didn’t happen until I met Jean at a friend’s baby shower in November.

I vaguely remember that we had a very short conversation. I used my poor English to ask her to
be my tutor in a nonserious way. She just gave me a sweet and friendly smile in return. (I guessed
she might not have totally understood what I said.)

Three months later, my friend called me and said that Jean was wondering whether I was still
interested in an English-as-a-second-language class. I couldn’t believe what I heard.

Since then, I go to her house for a free ESL class most Monday nights. Believe it or not, the
English I speak in those lessons is more than I have spoken altogether in the past 15 years.

Let me tell you something to prove how much this class has influenced my life:

This amazing thing happened at work when I ran into a Chinese girl I knew when I joined a
project group last year.

During those days, we talked to each other in Chinese all the time. After six months, I left the
group. Since then, I saw her just a couple of times when we had lunch together with others. The
last time I saw her, she was in her early pregnancy. I decided to buy a baby gift and brought it to
her office, but, unfortunately, she wasn’t there. I left the gift with a note on her table. Three
days later, I ran into her when I stepped out of the elevator.

“Hi, Yun,” I said. “It’s so nice to see you. How are you doing? You look great.”

I was ready to continue our conversation until I heard her reply in Chinese. Suddenly, I was
shocked by myself. I couldn’t believe that the sentences that had slipped out of my mouth were
English instead of Chinese — and it seemed like I was ready to say more in English.

It wasn’t possible for it to happen like this before.

I was singing happily all the way back to my office. My mood at that moment felt just like the
weather: sunny and pleasant. It was only two months since I started my once-a-week ESL class when
this event happened. Isn’t that amazing?

Jean is an excellent teacher. I always look forward to attending my next class. The most joyful
thing is Jean makes me feel like she is not only my ESL teacher but my friend as well.

With Jean’s encouragement, I was able to overcome my fear of people laughing at my poor English
skills. She told me all the time “Never too old to learn” and “Practice makes perfect.”

Jean even challenged me in a good way to write this article.

I still can’t believe that I did write this. I hope that it can be my best piece of work as a
gift to Jean in return for all that she has done for me.

Janine Liu, 48, of the Northwest Side finds English verb tenses especially challenging.